I found myself in a rather thoughtful mood as I scoffed
toast this morning. Facebook told me a friend was having a birthday today. I
first met this chap in September 1984 when I started working with him. We
worked together through thick and thin until August 2011 when I was sent to
work elsewhere. Having been in very close company for twenty-seven years, that
was it. I ran into him totally by chance once morning several years ago when I
was doing a spot of geocaching before a late shift, but apart from that, I’ve
not seen him at all in thirteen years.
Another Facebook friend was also having a birthday. Someone
who I would see regularly on holidays ad high days back when I was into kite
flying. Again, someone I’ve not heard from in years.
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
There wasn’t a lot happening on Facebook this morning.
Seeing it was eight o’clock and she’d slept through her alarm again I kicked “er
indoors TM” out of bed. Once the dogs had scoffed brekkie we went
off for our walk.
As we drove the pundits on the radio were interviewing the
Shadow Transport Minister who was talking about Labour’s plans to re-nationalise the
railways. She made the point that at the moment when a train runs
late it could be a problem with the train, the track, the signalling, or an
issue somewhere else. All of which are run by different companies and there are
three hundred lawyers currently employed to sort out who is to blame. That’s
one saving that could be made right away.
As we drove through the town centre there were countless
children on bikes on their way to school; all with those silly white things in
their ears. Let’s not pretend to be surprised when they get splatted, eh?
We got to the woods, and had a rather good wander round the
woods. A shorter walk today; just over three miles. As we walked up the slope
back to the car park we met a youngish lady and her dogs and Morgan and Bailey
had a great game of chase with them. And when I shared treats with them,
Treacle was quite happy for me to do so. Before we started Dog Club there is no
way she’d allow a non-family dog to have a treat.
We’d started our walk early today as rain had been
forecast. As we drove back into Ashford so the heavens opened.
We came home for a cuppa, then leaving “er indoors TM”
having a finance meeting I went to Bybrook Barn. Needing a length of black hose
for the new little pond’s filter (ninety-nine pence) I spent over sixty
quid. Four phlox plants, some garden ornaments, bird feeders and bird food too.
“er indoors TM” has this idea she’d like to watch the birds
as she works, and a bird feeder might entice our feathered friends. It might…
at the cost of those fat balls I hope it does.
With the rain stopped I thought I might crack on in the
garden. I disassembled the new pond’s filter waterfall thingy and plumbed in
the new hose. As planned, being black it is nowhere near as obvious as the one
it replaced. I then arranged a few rocks and stones around it.
Then I sorted the shingle. Having scraped it all out of the
way last Friday, I scraped it all back again today. Then I rearranged rather
heavy stone garden ornaments before emptying weeds out of the smaller stone
planters and putting the phlox in them. I took a deep breath and then swore at
the dogs as they tried to dig them out again.
After three hours I decided that enough was enough and
painted the sleepers. With them painted that would stop me walking across them
and doing any more fiddling about.
I put the new garden ornaments onto the shed, then logged
into the wi-fi booster. Hopefully this will allow us to use the house wi-fi in
the garden. If it don’t I’ve still got gigabytes of mobile data I never use.
With my back aching I came in and made us both a cuppa. I
had cake (I’d got some when at the garden centre earlier). “er
indoors TM” didn’t; she had a Penguin biccie. Each to their own,
eh? More cake for me.
As I swilled cake I priced up what I’d spent on the little
pond. Bearing in mind I got the waterfall at half price (as it was ex-demo)
and that some of the odds and sods were recycled or already licking about in
the shed, by the time I’ve paid for the fish (hopefully next week) it
will have cost me two hundred and fifty quid. That’s not bad, really.
I then had a stroke of genius (I have those from time to
time) and bodged together a little bracket to the old upright which used to
hold the insect house (until it fell to bits). I was about to set up one
of the new bird feeders on it, but rain stopped play. I’ll do that tomorrow.
“er indoors TM” boiled up a very good
bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching another episode of “Taskmaster”.
My face is glowing… I seem to have caught the sun today. Somehow.
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